Beaufort County-based cable and telephone company Hargray Communications announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Charter Communications’ cable system in Beaufort. The transaction involves about 7,000 customers in Beaufort.

“Having completed the acquisition, we are immediately beginning to migrate former Charter customers onto our network.” said Andrew Rein, Hargray’s vice president of sales & marketing. “To make the transition as seamless as possible, we are giving former Charter customers the option of transitioning to our products that most closely match their current services, at the same monthly rate they have been paying Charter.”

Hargray will be reaching out to each former Charter residential and business customer via telephone, email and regular mail with information about each customer’s options. Former Charter customers are also encouraged to go to www.Hargray.com/Charter to learn more.

To ensure customers are kept up to date with relevant information on Hargray’s integration activities, the company plans to:

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This is unpleasant news for Charter subscribers, such as myself, who signed up with Charter simply because they were the only carrier on Port Royal Island to have Charleston TV stations in their lineup.

I spoke to a Hargray customer service representative earlier this week who indicated that Hargray has no plans to add any Charleston TV stations to their lineup in light of the acquisition. Not pleased with the response.

I've pretty much made up my mind that I will procure an outside antenna to pick up Charleston TV and drop cable completely (not interested in satellite at all). No biggie - we had an antenna on the roof when I was growing up in Beaufort in the pre-cable days.

There's lots more over-the-air choices now than there were when I was growing up.

That is true BGL. There are a lot more over the air channels today. You can even get HD channels with the right type of antenna and I hear the quality is better than satellite. Unfortunately I live in a neighborhood that doesn't allow exterior antennas or I would have one too.
Anything is better than Hargray. Good luck to you.

You are welcome BGL.
One other thing though. You mention that you don't have a HD TV so I assume your sets are older. Depending on the age of your TV, you may have a NTSC tuner which is analog. Analog tuners no longer work with a simple antenna because everything has gone digital after broadcasters were forced by law to cancel analog signals a couple years back. You may have to get a digital box to convert your analog TV so it works with todays signal. If your TV is somewhat new (I think anything after 2006 has a digital tuner) but just not HD, then you may have a digital ATSC tuner and things should work just fine.
Time to step up to a new HD TV my friend!

My younger bachelor brother lives in an RV with an amplified antenna and he picks up lots of broadcast channels. Depending on where you are, you may not need a rotor any longer. He lives near me on St Helena Island and we get Savannah stations clear as a bell because we are open to the south across a tidal creek. I know of some other people that do pick up Charleston better, but they are open to the north.

Suggest you use an amplified antenna. I have one as a backup and it gets a clear signal on about 8 channels and is designed to receive the HD broadcasts.

I used to have two antennas, one pointed north and one pointed south to get around a rotor. Seems the strong winds was always damaging mine.

Heron55, I live behind the National Cemetery. My goal is to pick up all TV stations in both Savannah AND Charleston (and of course, WJWJ, but rabbit ears will suffice for that signal). I anticipate picking up 13 stations, not counting the digital sub-channels. I assume that the digital subchannels, e.g. WCBD 2.2, have the same signal strength as the "main" channels.

I have to replace the cable on mine, because a close light bolt fried it, but the antenna is still OK. As I said it is a backup in case DirectTV satellite goes on the blink like in stormy weather. Heavy clouds will blank out the signal. I can't get cable in my rural area because I am too far from Highway 21where the main cable is.

The antenna on my brother's RV is smaller, but he picks up a bunch of channels. I'll see him this afternoon and ask him which channels he gets. His favorite is one with old movies from one channel.

Since my last post, I have spoken twice to Hargray (or Chargray, as my wife puts it - ha ha) management on the acquisition. They've indicated a desire to add Charleston stations to their lineup, but mentioned that so far, they've been unable to come to terms with the stations regarding carriage fees (what the cable company pays the TV station for the right to carry their signal).

Alas, this happens far too often in the industry, e.g., Dish Network and AMC unable to work out the carriage fees. Of course, consumers are losers in all of this.

If you're a Chargray customer (or an original Hargray one) who would like to have Charleston TV added to the lineup, it might be worthwhile to contact the stations and respectfully ask them to work with Hargray so that they can be added to the normal tier lineup.

At this point, I'm going to keep Charter until I HAVE to "convert" (about two months or so), and whether or not I will stay with Chargray will be based on their channel lineup at that time.

Commongood, I don't know if you will be notified of an update on this thread, but I did some additional research and found that Federal law prohibits HOAs from disallowing homeowners in fully detached dwellings from erecting outside antennas on their roofs. HOAs can restrict the antenna height to a maximum of 12 ft above the roofline.

I put up my antenna a year ago last November. I pick up signals from 5 commercial high-powered Charleston stations and their sub-channels (for a total of 10 channels) - WCBD NBC, WCIV, ABC, WCSC CBS, WTAT Fox, and WMMP MyTv. The latter two come in strong constantly. WCIV comes in pretty good most of the time, and WCSC & WCBD can be spotty at times. My antenna is 18 ft off the ground and there are trees in the Charleston direction.

All in all, I am pleased. Over-the-air signals are of a better quality than the compressed ones which cable/satellite offer, and I receive more Charleston channels than Charter offered.

BGL- Sorry, but CG is no longer allowed to post here. BT banned CG because they didn't agree with his conservative views, just like they have banned many other conservatives.
CG and his well thought out posts are missed dearly here. He hasn't been around for several months yet he is still the number 1 points leader by far, even though he hasn't posted anything since who knows when.
Combine commongoods points with cobraguy (the original CG and the same person) and the points leader CG can't be touched even to this day.
But that's BT for you. Ban all of their best bloggers because they don't agree with their ideology but continue to allow all the useless SPAM, as well as all the liberal name callers to run wild here with no discipline what so ever and hope the conservatives learn a lesson.
Oh, conservatives have learned a lesson alright. The conservatives of Beaufort County have learned exactly what BT is all about.

The new amplified HD antennas are much smaller than the older ones and are not as obvious. In fact, I put one in my attic that rotates to protect it from the weather and it works fine. Of course the higher up the better, but I have a two story house. I pick up all the Savannah stations as well as some of the Charleston and also the PBS stations. All you get on cable or satellite is one PBS ,16-1, but there are 4 different PBS broadcasts over the air. My wife likes "Create" found on 16-2, which has lots of crafts, arts, sewing, quilting, etc. You don't get those on cable. Channel 9 in Savannah also is a PBS and has different programming schedules. Best Buy and Radio Shack have them or you can order on line if you want to install it yourself. And again, the stations are all free.

Sounds like you need a new phone 9mmchick. Is it a cell phone or a cordless home phone?

I like the idea of the attic antenna heron55! I'm going to bring it up at dinner tonight because I'm tired of spending almost 150.00 a month on satellite TV and having it go out every time it sprinkles a little bit. We could drop a lot of channels on our satellite package, lowering the bill and go with the antenna for extra channels. Plus, especially in case of emergency, we should always be able to receive a signal from the antenna channels when it's raining. Especially during a storm when we need to get emergency information.
Thank you for the link! ;)

I agree that a new phone may be an option for 9MM. My son had problems with his and he got another which works fine.

I have DirecTV, but have the lowest package offered. In fact, if you state you are dropping it to save money, you may be able to negotiate an even smaller package with only the channels you want as I did. I keep it to watch Fox news and the Weather Channel, especially on weekends when local channels drop news/weather and local channels do not offer it.

We are not big TV watchers anyway, so having all those channels is not important to us. We spend most of our leisure time reading. I have a library of DVDs of movies I like and a 50" plasma with audio connected to a stereo system. Hard to watch Star Wars series on a tiny TV. And I have many of the Broadway musicals that we watch now and then. One of my favorites is Brigadoon.

In my additional research, I also discovered that there's no such thing as an "HD Antenna". Since the 2009 digital conversion, most TV stations are now broadcasting in UHF, e.g., WCSC Charleston actually broadcasts on channel 47, but the digital signal contains information to "tell" your TV to display the station on channel 5 (5.1, 5.2, & 5.3 today).

What one needs today to pick up TV stations over-the-air in Beaufort is a good antenna designed for UHF and high VHF (channels 7-13) reception. Ideally, it should be outdoors, grounded, connected to a good preamp, and above the roofline with no trees in the way; like Heron55 stated, the higher, the better. The signals from Charleston for the most part are weak enough that, based on my experience, they likely won't penetrate your roof to reach your attic antenna. If you have an outdoor antenna left over from the analogue days which was designed for VHF and UHF reception and it's still in good shape, there's no reason to buy an "HD antenna" - you've already got an antenna that will pick up HD. It's all about the broadcast frequency, not HD.

Heron55, Hargray DOES carry all three ETV channels - 16.1 is on channel 7 in their lineup, 16.2 is on 109, and 16.3 is on 108. Per their web page, they only carry the primary channel 9.1 (2 on their lineup) from Georgia Public Broadcasting Savannah/Pembroke; ergo, 9.2 & 9.3 are not carried by Hargray.

Thanks for the additional info. The UHF antennas I bought are specifically for the new channels and are smaller than the old VHF. But you are right that an old antenna that has a UHF on the front will still pick up the signals. Another difference is that most of the new UHF (they call them HD in the ads) have an amplifier built in which really helps when the TV is say more than 20 miles away. People living in towns that have stations need only amplified rabbit ears and some may not even need them amplified.

I am on St Helena Island, which is closer to Charleston than Bluffton/HH and my Charleston signals are not dependable and depend on the weather. Doesn't really matter, because Savannah offers the same networks, CBS, NBC, ABC as well as some duplication of other movie stations, so I simply keep my antenna pointed south when I use it.

CBS, ABC and NBC stations also offer more than what appears on cable or satellite. For instance 11 WTOC, has 11-1, 11-2 and 11-3. So do the other stations like 3 has 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3.

In our rural area, we don't get cable, so our only other choice is satellite. I like DirecTV, but having an air antenna offers a back up as well as more choices of local stations. A younger brother chooses to have only an air antenna, but he is a bachelor and likes their programming.

My antenna looks like Denny's Flat wave which is a lot neater, doesn't take as much room and doesn't have tubes sticking out which could be dangerous to your eyes if you use your attic for storage.

I personally have a Channelmaster 4228 antenna with a Winegard 8275 preamp. The reason for a preamp is to limit signal degradation as it travels from the antenna to your tv. Without the preamp, I probably couldn't pick up WCBD, WCIV, & WCSC on any kind of regular basis, and WTAT & WMMP would likely come in very weak. I also have a Channel Master CM 9537 electronic rotor as well.

You are correct about Savannah and Charleston having duplicate network programming. The significant difference is in local news reporting and sporting events. For example, during the NFL regular season, WTGS Fox 28 Hardeeville/Savannah carries mostly Atlanta Falcons games, while WTAT Fox 24 Charleston carries mostly Carolina Panthers games. Also, WMMP Charleston 36.1 carries a high school football game of the week live each Thursday during the season. They televised the Beaufort-Ashley Ridge game this past season.

For that reason alone (local programming), I keep my antenna pointed towards Charleston. I use the antenna for primary viewing and Hargray for backup or if there's something we want to watch on a cable/satellite only channel, e.g., TNT, USA, ESPN.

The bigger antennas from the past are designed to pick up all VHF stations. From what I've read, in the digital world one needs a large antenna to pick up signals in the low VHF range (channels 2-6); the signals are not very good (more subject to interference than high VHF and UHF are) , and very few TV stations today broadcast in it. The only one close to us is Georgia PBS for Augusta, which broadcasts on channel 6 (virtual channel 20). WJBF ABC Augusta broadcasts on channel 42 (virtual channel 6). Confused yet?

This is why almost all TV stations which used to broadcast on channels 2-6 analogue are now broadcasting on UHF (high VHF does not have the same problem, hence WTOC broadcasts on channel 11 both real and virtual).

I guess I'm old school, but it still boggles my mind that we have to reiterate again and again that over-the-air (OTA) TV is "free", which is how it's been since the beginning of commercial TV broadcasting in the US. Cable/satellite has so taken over that young people don't know that OTA actually exists, and others can't distinguish between broadcast stations and those channels available on cable/satellite only. A cousin of mine in her 20s recently asked me if having an antenna to pick up broadcasts for free was legal. I couldn't tell whether or not she was joking.

Growing up in Beaufort, we received TV stations from both Charleston and Savannah OTA with our rooftop antenna. Cable was supposed to provide clear, reliable, snow-free pictures from both locales. It did for many years. TV markets, Retransmission Consent Agreements, etc. have, in my opinion, violated that purpose.

For anyone interested, VHF (Very High Frequency) for awhile was the norm for TV broadcasts. Channel 2 had the lowest frequency and each channel up had a higher frequency. Technology advanced and UHF (Ultra High Frequency) was developed. Its main advantage was less interference and a more focused signal. Nearly all broadcasts now are UHF with only a few stragglers on VHF.

The width of the antenna array is determined by the frequency. Channel 2 on VHS, the lowest frequency, had the longest or the widest tubes while the higher channels had the shorter. Later UHF antennas had a smaller sizewith shorter tubes tacked on for the newer UHF broadcasts.

Another tidbit of info is that lower frequencies like AM radio have very long broadcast antennas. The whole tower (like 1000 to 2000 ft) is the antenna and usually either a quarter or a half wave length. Submarines, while under water, use VLF (Very Low Frequency) and trail a wire behind the sub that may be hundreds of yards long for a quarter wave length. Those low frequencies can travel thousands of miles around the world under water.

On the other extreme, a cell phone is in the 1800Mhtz frequency range, which requires a 6.3 inch antenna for a quarter wave length. The antenna is coiled up withing the case so it is not visible. Military and government have even higher frequencies beyond the civilian uses with very tiny antennae.

Bottom line is that an antenna length is determined by the frequency to be transmitted or received for optimal use.

Most stations in the analogue days which broadcast on VHF channels 7-13 have retained that frequency on digital. WITV ETV Charleston still broadcasts on channel 7, WVAN Georgia Public Broadcasting Savannah is still on 9, and of course the aforementioned WTOC is still on 11. There's a large frequency gap between channels 6 & 7. High VHF (7-13) functions more like UHF in the digital world. The few stragglers Heron55 is referring to are on the low VHF (2-6) band.